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Animation
See Character Gallery for more characters. Mae Questel's voice-over in Animation: During the 1930s Mae started out doing voice-over for the Fleischer Studios. Her most notable roles were Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Questel would provide background vocal for numerous characters in the animated film shorts. She also filled in for Jack Mercer as the voice of Popeye for a small number of cartoons, made when Mercer was temporarily drawn into war service. During the 1940s, Mae did voice-over for Famous Studios an animation studio founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control of the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941. Mae would often do voice-over of background characters, in Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost & Herman and Katnip. Mae was given the leading role of Little Audrey (Audrey Smith) a fictional character who appeared in the Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1958. She is considered a variation of the better-known Little Lulu, devised after Paramount decided not to renew the license on the comic strip character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell (AKA: "Marge"). Despite some superficial similarities between the two characters, the Famous animators were at pains to design Audrey in contrast to Lulu, adopting an entirely different color scheme and employing the stylistic conventions common to Famous Studios later 1940s repertoire, as opposed to Buell's individualistic rendering of Little Lulu. Veteran animator Bill Tytla was the designer of Little Audrey, reportedly inspired by his daughter Tammy (who was also his inspiration for Famous' version of Little Lulu, on which he also worked and for which he directed several shorts). The original voice of Little Lulu was performed by actress Cecil Roy (who also provided the voice of Casper the Friendly Ghost). Little Audrey was instead voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced most of Paramount's other major female cartoon characters. Before Max and Dave were ousted by Paramount, Mae was asked to move with the studios to Florida but decided to stay in New York, to settle down and raise a family. Around that time Mr Bug Goes to Town went into production. A character a little Bee Scout named Buzz appeared in the film. The original Paramount promo image states that he is Honey's little brother. Mae Questel was asked to go down to Florida and record the lines for Buzz the Beescout. The film was previewed by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1941, and released in California and New York City in February 1942. From 1953-1957 Mae Questel was the official voice of Winky Dink in the CBS interactive children's TV show Winky Dink and You which was hosted by Jack Barry. The show, created by Harry Prichett, Sr. and Ed Wyckoff, featured Barry and his sidekick, the incompetent Mr. Bungle (veteran children's show voice actor Dayton Allen), introducing clips of Winky Dink, who was noted for his plaid pants, tousled star-shaped hair, and large eyes. A record entitled ''Jack Barry And Winky Dink ''was released by Decca in 1954. Questel is not featured on any of the tracks featured, instead Winky Dink is voiced by an uncredited voice-over actress. Mae Questel was most likely busy with other voice work around that time. During the 1950s, Mae was the official voice of the Hasbro Kid. Category:Mae Questel Category:Voice-Over Category:Animation Category:Voice Actress Category:Little Audrey Category:Betty Boop Category:Hasbro Kid Category:Mr. Bug Goes to Town Category:Winky Dink and You Category:Hasbro